Owners update for the ages
One of the all-time great owners updates found its way to Betsy this week. We can’t publish it – or even say who gave the brilliant oration – because they’ve previously complained that owners updates should be exactly that – for the owners. We’ll respect his wishes.
But we’ll pick out our favourite parts.
In explaining to his owners why their colt needed to be gelded, the trainer tried his best [with the odd laugh] to be G rated despite his horse’s extreme tendencies.
First reason for the poor colt had to lose his tackle? Staff can’t even catch the horse to send him to another farm.
If that wasn’t enough, the colt had a sex drive of note. Not even colic could slow the young fella down, owners were told, with the trainer saying his horse was a world champion masturbator. [Betsy hasn’t seen the rankings, so we’ll take his word].
The colt had to have Vicks Vaporub up his nose to make sure he wasn’t distracted by the fillies nearby when he was for sale.
“So I’ll cut to the chase and cut his nuts off and we’ll have a lovely horse,” the trainer explained.
Jericho deserved better
Racing Victoria seemingly high on the goodwill from Bloggsy’s sensational promotion of the Victorian Spring Carnival perhaps forgot about an iconic race in their own backyard, the Jericho.
The modern day Jericho Cup was created and funded by Bill Gibbins.
Gibbins who was mesmerised by the first ever Jericho Cup in World War One [the story goes that towards the end of the war, the Light Horsemen were planning a major assault, so to distract them, they organised a race. It was the named the Jericho Cup and Australia’s greatest war horse, Bill the Bastard, won it].
Gibbins personally funded the race for four years before handing it to RV. The Jericho was run last Sunday at Warrnambool, worth a cool $304,000, including a first prize cheque of $167,000.
Unfortunately for the race, racing.com talent weren’t even on track to cover the event other than to show the race. We hope it’s just a one-off. Costs are as important as ever for the industry broadcaster to keep down, who broadcast from the comfort of the studio on Sunday afternoon, with the Traralgon Cup also being run.
In 2025, you could easily argue both events were worthy of the investment of talent and time. Critics on Sunday were red-hot on the fact that racing.com had talent in Japan, but not Warrnambool. Fact is though .com have a commercial relationship with Japan racing and had every right to be there, even if the optics were poor.
Tasmania to get airtime
Sticking with racing.com, credit to the broadcaster for getting West Australian racing on the channel earlier this year, the content has been great and the more live racing on the channel, the better.
Betsy now believes Tasmania is likely to be next in line to feature. It’s a result that’s good for both parties. The future of racing.com’s spectrum remains a focus for some cashed up wagering operators who see it as an attractive proposition to bring all states together. Given the cash pressures on RV and new deals to be signed between RDC and its partners in the next 18 months, expect conversations to happen again in 2026.
Do punters care about Group status?
You could argue administrators fighting with each other over the pattern is a story that only those inside the racing bubble care about. As I took leave last week, my colleague Matt Welsh featured former RQ CEO turned bookie Jason Scott and his views on the pattern. Fair to say Welsh’s phone blew up from those still fighting the fight.
Fact is, I reckon most punters couldn’t give a hoot whether a race is a Group 1 or Benchmark 64 – as along as the best horses are racing and there is a competitive market to bet into.
While we are on the pattern, the politics of getting anything done remain the major roadblock.
Betsy understands confidential legal advice suggests the pattern guidelines may breach Australian competition law. The advice argues that protections around dates and race positioning restrict growth and make the framework anti-competitive.
Racing NSW wants date constraints removed, and the legal advice seemingly validates their position.
Racing Australia is a lame duck not worthy of its name. In the end, the pattern will not move until the industry accepts that compromise is not surrender but the only path out of a stalemate that is holding Australian racing back. Issue is there is a real possibility there could be collateral damage on a few careers unless it’s sorted soon.
Riding off into the sunset
A well-known racing figure left his role recently, with both parties saying the decision was mutual. What we will say is this – given racing’s history of poor behaviour of some men and the sport’s inability to deal with it properly, administrators need to start calling out those who don’t live up to the standard.
And thank you
Matt and I want to thank punters for their support in 2025. We planned Betsy for a long time and while we’re mindful we’re in our early stages and there’s plenty of work to do, we’re thankful for the engagement so far. Readers can expect a range of additional features to be added to the website in coming months. We’ve eclipsed our expectations and we can’t wait for a massive 2026.
